MCDONALD'S CORPORATION | Advisory vote on the welfare of poultry disclosures at MCDONALD'S CORPORATION

Status
35.98% votes in favour
AGM date
Previous AGM date
Proposal number
8
Resolution details
Company ticker
MCD
Lead filer
The Humane Society of the United States
Resolution ask
Report on or disclose
ESG theme
  • Environment
  • Social
ESG sub-theme
  • Animal welfare
Type of vote
Shareholder proposal
Filer type
Shareholder
Company sector
Consumer Discretionary
Company HQ country
United States
Resolved clause
"RESOLVED: Shareholders again ask McDonald’s to disclose its “15 key welfare indicators” and explain how it’s using each one to measure and improve animal welfare.

We believe this request is reasonable, not at all onerous, and comprises the fundamental information companies should provide to display responsibility and accountability on their material policy pledges."
Supporting statement
"SUPPORTING STATEMENT: Following significant shareholder support last year, and the company’s subsequent inaction despite it, we again ask McDonald’s to disclose fundamental details about one of its animal welfare initiatives.

Here’s the background:

In 2017, McDonald’s pledged to source broiler (meat) chickens “raised with improved welfare outcomes.” This commitment impacts five billion birds annually, according to McDonald’s.

Following its pledge, McDonald’s adopted 15 “key welfare indicators” (KWIs) for broilers, then invested millions into technology to “automate gathering welfare and behavioral indicators.” In 2022, McDonald’s used the KWIs to set “targets” that would be used to rank suppliers “in performance peer groups that will inform timebound improvement goals. “McDonald’s declares, without elaboration, that this target and improvement system will be “key to ensuring [its] chicken welfare efforts” are beneficial to the birds, suppliers, and the planet.

But despite such extensive promotion of its KWI-based welfare efforts, McDonald’s still refuses to disclose just what the 15 KWIs actually are.

Last year, a shareholder proposal requesting disclosure of the KWIs received significant support, garnering nearly 40% of the vote. Here’s what Institutional Shareholder Services concluded about it:

“The company has set a goal to increase the welfare of its broiler chickens by the end of 2024 and the proponent is asking the company to publicly disclose the 15 key welfare indicators (KWIs) it has set as part of this goal. The proponent is also asking how the KWIs are measured and how they improve the welfare of the broiler chickens in the company’s supply chain. The company says this would disrupt its current efforts. More disclosure on the way the company is measuring the commitments it has would allow shareholders to better assess the effectiveness of the company’s animal welfare commitment and management of related risks. This request is not considered to be overly burdensome. Therefore, shareholder support is warranted.”

It strikes us as strange that McDonald’s continues to seem intent on keeping its KWIs secret, even after such significant support for transparency. Indeed, if a company has developed metrics for measuring performance and informing progress toward an important (and material) significant policy goal, it ought to disclose what they are.

And to be certain, animal welfare transparency is a significant policy issue."

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